Goodbye Piccadilly, hello Reading. Property speculators head west

Bargain hunters are homing in on industrial parks in the provinces

EVERY Friday and Saturday night, scores of wealthy youngsters queue along
Derry Street in Kensington, west London. They wait excitedly to get into the
Roof Gardens, on the sixth floor of an art deco building that was once a
department store.

The grade II listed gardens have flamingos, fruit trees and a stream stocked
with fish. Celebrity visitors have included Mick Jagger and Maria Sharapova.

Kensington Roof Gardens is one of the capital’s most expensive nightspots —
and one of its trophy properties. In January it was bought by the Conley
family of Germany for £225m. The purchase marked the latest in a long line
of swoops by foreign investors on prime property, all driven by London’s
reputation as a safe haven.

Last month, another overseas buyer struck a very different kind of deal.
Oaktree Capital Management, the aggressive American asset manager, and the
German investor Patrizia paid £245m for the